March 31, 2004
ANTI-MICROSOFT TSAR GETS NEW PORTFOLIO:
EU 'anti-terror Tsar' to fight al-Qa'eda (Telegraph, 3/26/2004)
European Union leaders agreed yesterday to rush forward a clutch of EU-wide surveillance measures and created an anti-terror "Tsar" in response to the Madrid bombings.The list of counter-terrorism measures pushed by Britain, France and Spain at a Union summit in Brussels include plans to retain mobile telephone records, e-mail and internet data indicating the time and address of all websites visited.
Europhobe that I am, I still wouldn't have guessed that Europe's pre-eminent anti-terror measure would be monitoring of web-browsing. At least we'll know if the next Mohammed Atta was using Internet Explorer. Planned response to the next bombing: electronic ankle bracelets for everyone. Then we'll know if the third Mohammed Atta went bowling like the Columbine killers.
Campaign 2004 prediction: in September, Dick Clarke and John Kerry explain that the Europeans take terrorism much more seriously than the Bush administration.
Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 31, 2004 12:17 AMAmusing comments, but this is actually another way in which Kerry is screwed on the terrorism issue. By saying he wants it to be more of a law enforcement issue, he'll have to support some sort of action, probably measures like those mentioned. However, if he does, the ACLU/privacy advocates/etc. either blow their stacks and vote Nader or, at best, clench their teeth and force themselves to vote for Kerry. It certainly won't lure any Bush voters to switch. In any case, it doesn't help Kerry.
Posted by: PapayaSF at March 31, 2004 2:23 AMI would take Papaya's commnents further. The GOP should expose how the national Democrats are to the Left (to the soft, ineffectual side) of even Europe in giving our law/security enforcement guys the tools they need to win the war on their very own preferred front -- Law Enforcement front. The Patriot Act (and almost any other security measure) is disparaged daily, while many of its "allowances" are commonplace in the most liberal of EU countries. So, on what fronts are the Dems exactly going to get tough on terrorism? Oh, the "root causes" front...
Posted by: MG at March 31, 2004 7:52 AMMG - I don't want the Republican Party to be appealing to the Europeans for moral authority. And claiming the Democrats are 'worse than Europe' could be taken by the public as a low blow, and would not be consistent with Bush's 'new tone' conviviality.
Posted by: pj at March 31, 2004 7:57 AMPJ - GOP is smart enough to let others do the comparison of the Dems and Europe on terror and leave Bush out of it.
Posted by: AWW at March 31, 2004 8:06 AMI would start by focusing on the DOJ/Homeland Security/Intelligence wish list that Dems (this is not just a Kerry issue, it is a Congressional issue) oppose, undermine, or support half-heartedly and list the countries in the EU that already have it in place. (The more pusilanimous the country, the better.) Then simply ask: Exactly on what front does John Kerry and the Democratic Party want to lead the world on the fight against terrorism?
Posted by: MG at March 31, 2004 9:16 AMI just hope they don't call it: The Patriot Act Ltd.
Posted by: genecis at March 31, 2004 9:56 AM